 When someone asks me where I have studied, I can only say that all of my art lessons have come from my life experiences and from the world around me. One only needs to take the time to truly look and listen and amazing things can happen, allowing you to bring your very best self forward. As a self-taught artist, I began to express myself through my drawings in mid-age. However, my love of birds and animals began at a very early age. I was raised on a farm in Iowa, lived in the foothills of Colorado for 18 years and am now enjoying the critters of Florida. This love of all creatures has been a constant theme that has continued in my adult life. Wildlife art was the beginning. There is much within me that will unfold as the present becomes the past. The excitement in life is finding out what is yet to come. I have always enjoyed the subtle shadows and shades of black and white art. As in life, nothing is absolute. As black shades and shadows into white and white tip-toes back into subtle velvet tones of black, the artist reaches to explore and capture what is seen. And yet, your imagination carries you beyond the subject and the medium. The real and the imagination join hands to create the expression. Marla Meier |